Wins For Neal, Collard and Plato at Brands

The 2009 MSA HiQ British Touring Car Championship got off to a
fantastic and thrilling start at Brands Hatch with 20 cars producing
bumper-to-bumper action. In glorious April weather a packed crowd saw
three different winners in Matt Neal, Rob ...

The 2009 MSA HiQ British Touring Car Championship got off to a
fantastic and thrilling start at Brands Hatch with 20 cars producing
bumper-to-bumper action. In glorious April weather a packed crowd saw
three different winners in Matt Neal, Rob Collard and Jason Plato in the
weekend races - although Jonny Adam crossed the line first in the final
race, he had four seconds added to his race finish to drop him to second
as a result of tapping Plato into a spin when he took the lead. It's
Neal; however, who takes the early advantage after having a fantastic
weekend taking one victory and two third places finishes.

Start of round 1.

Photo by Pat Cranham.

In Race 1 Neal lead home his Vauxhall teammate Fabrizio Giovanardi in
the same order they started the race. They did not have it their own way
in which it was a great race with battles right down the field.

The drama happened right off the line when both Neal and Giovanardi
had poor starts allowing the two BMW's of Collard and Colin Turkington
through. There was contact back in sixth when Stephen Jelley went for a
gap in-between Gordon Shedden and Adam, tapping Shedden into Adam who
both retired as a result.

Collard led Turkington until lap 7, when Turkington tapped the rear of
Collard up at Druids allowing both himself and Neal through into the
lead.

Turkington and Neal both then enjoyed a battle with Neal overtaking
Turkington into the Paddock corner. Turkington got the cut back to
retake the lead; Neal wasn't to be denied though and made the decisive
move back into the lead at Clearways, also allowing his younger VX
team-mate Andrew Jordan into second. Jordan's joy was short lived when,
comfortably holding second, he developed a problem and retired pulling
off down the Cooper Straight.

This allowed Giovanardi, who had dropped down to fifth at the start, to
pressure Turkington and had a similar battle to the previous one Neal
had with Turkington. He could not hold Giovanardi behind, however, and
would lose second.

Behind these three Collard claimed forth with Adam Jones a fine fifth
for Clyde Valley racing on their debut. Plato would claim sixth after a
drag race to the line with Jelley whilst Harry Vaulkhard taking a career
best eighth position in his new Tempus Racing team. Vaulkhard had a
great scrap with Dan Eaves, who would insure both CVR cars made it into
the top ten in their debut race. A very happy Martyn Bell would take
tenth position after a non-points scoring season last year.

Round 1 podium.

Photo by Pat Cranham.

With the grid starting in the finishing positions from race one, Neal
and Giovanardi would start from the front row. The two BMW's, of
Turkington and Collard, took advantage of their rear wheel drive and
propelled themselves into the lead while fellow BMW driver Jelley moved
up to third past the Vauxhall's.

Turkington would lead the whole race right up to two laps from the end
when Collard nudged his way through to claim the victory. Motorbase
gained their first win in the championship and at their home circuit,
while this would be Collard's first win since 2005.

Collard may have given Turkington a little bit of a tap but had no
complaints after the race saying, "Rob and I had contact in race one
which cost him the lead so maybe this was revenge from him. But I'm not
going to whinge about it. Second is still a lot of points."

Finishing in third was Neal. Giovanardi, however, looked to be in a
secure third, challenging the two BMW's for the lead, but an unfortunate
puncture would make him finish out of the points. Benefiting from
Giovanardi's misfortune was Jelley who finished a career best fourth
place. Next up were two retirees from the first race, Jordan and
Shedden, who both produced fine displays to come from 16th and 17th on
the grid.

The two battling CVR Seats would finish 7th and 8th, with Jones
finishing ahead of Eaves whilst another driver coming from the back of
the grid, Adam taking ninth ahead of Plato, who was running higher but
contact with Shedden at Clearways dropped him down the order.

Rob Collard leads Turkington.

Photo by Pat Cranham.

In Race 3 the top 10 would be reversed. This meant Plato would take
pole and would lead off pole into the first corner. Further back around
Graham Hill Bend there was contact when Jelley and Collard tangled.
Giovanardi also had to take avoiding action with both Collard and Jelley
having different views of the incident. Jelley would retire on the spot
and Giovanardi would also not finish the race as a result of damage from
this. Collard would eventually finish 8th.

After a short safety car period to clear up debris the main talking
point of the race occurred when going into Paddock, Adam clipped the
back of Plato's RML Chevrolet into a half spin and although somehow
Plato managed to correct the slide from an impossible angle, Adam
managed to get past.

Adam then managed to pull away getting the fastest lap in the process,
with Plato hanging on to second, first from Shedden and then Neal, in
the closing stages of the race. Shedden would finish 5th in the end with
Turkington taking 4th.

Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing had a strong debut weekend finishing
in 6th and 7th. Eaves was this time ahead of Jones: both cars finishing
in the top 10 in all three races. A recovering Collard would take 8th
ahead of Vaulkhard and Bell, who enjoyed their best weekends so far,
adding to their points tally from race 1.

There is also a mention for Team Aon, who made their debut in
Ford Focus', finished in 11th and 12th. They would take the
manufactures/constructors trophy for Round 3 and for Martin Johnson and
his Boulevard Racing team, who worked miracles to get the car on the
grid after a beating from race two. Jordan was also enjoying another
strong race but was let down by the car when in fifth place his drive
shaft broke and would have to retire.

Jason Plato with Jonny Adams right on the Chevy's bumper.

Photo by Pat Cranham.

After the champagne had been sprayed, the stewards had decided that Adam
got an unfair advantage when he overtook Plato and added four seconds
on to his race time to reverse the top two positions .The day belonged
to Neal though securing three podiums to take an early advantage in the
championship from Turkington by six points.

Next up was Collard, though disappointed not to score strong points in
race three,, Collard declared himself happy from the weekend and in a
confident mood for the next races by saying, "Sure, I could have been
right up there with Matt on points had the incident in race three not
happened, but it's been a tremendously strong start for the team. I
feel we are right in the hunt and obviously I'll be looking for similar
results in front of my home crowd at Thruxton."

Plato ended the day fourth in the points but was happy just to be there.
"Last Wednesday morning I'd resigned myself to the fact I'd be spending
today fitting a new bathroom in my house!" The ex Sear driver said.
"But then came 'the call' and I was suddenly packing my race kit into
my bag. The RML team has worked miracles all weekend and we're still
figuring out what really makes the car tick. We've had zero testing
before this weekend so to get a win is beyond what we ever realistically
thought was possible. It's a cracking result and gives us a huge lift as
we look ahead."

Although it's still unsure how much of the season Plato will compete or
even whether the car will be on the grid for the next race, which will
be at the UK's fastest racetrack on the 25/26th of April at Thruxton.